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| Leadsom was right to withdraw – her candidacy was nonsense on stilts | Leadsom was right to withdraw – her candidacy was nonsense on stilts |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| Andrea Leadsom’s withdrawal from the Conservative party leadership race just after noon today was the fruit of honest self-assessment: her candidacy was always nonsense on stilts, a by-product of referendum hysteria and of a political culture so askew that obscurity and inexperience can be presented as strengths. | Andrea Leadsom’s withdrawal from the Conservative party leadership race just after noon today was the fruit of honest self-assessment: her candidacy was always nonsense on stilts, a by-product of referendum hysteria and of a political culture so askew that obscurity and inexperience can be presented as strengths. |
| In her letter to Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, her core argument was that she lacked the parliamentary support to justify her continued campaign, or to make sense of potential victory in the forthcoming poll of the party’s 150,000 members. This was the defiant flourish in the text: I might have won, you know, as the authentic voice of the pro-Brexit Tory grassroots. | In her letter to Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, her core argument was that she lacked the parliamentary support to justify her continued campaign, or to make sense of potential victory in the forthcoming poll of the party’s 150,000 members. This was the defiant flourish in the text: I might have won, you know, as the authentic voice of the pro-Brexit Tory grassroots. |
| Beneath her formal reasoning lurked a harsher psychological reality: she had clearly grasped over the weekend what she was letting herself in for. The treatment by the Times of her remarks about motherhood as a qualification for high office was entirely fair, and the ensuing furore only to be expected. As they say in America: welcome to the NFL. | Beneath her formal reasoning lurked a harsher psychological reality: she had clearly grasped over the weekend what she was letting herself in for. The treatment by the Times of her remarks about motherhood as a qualification for high office was entirely fair, and the ensuing furore only to be expected. As they say in America: welcome to the NFL. |
| Yet Leadsom found the experience harrowing, as most people would. And if she found this minor skirmish hard to bear, how would she handle the daily punishment of life in No 10? As I have written before, David Cameron only makes the job look easy. Tony Blair used to say that there were 10 indispensable qualities that a prime minister needed (his point being that Gordon Brown lacked several of them). | Yet Leadsom found the experience harrowing, as most people would. And if she found this minor skirmish hard to bear, how would she handle the daily punishment of life in No 10? As I have written before, David Cameron only makes the job look easy. Tony Blair used to say that there were 10 indispensable qualities that a prime minister needed (his point being that Gordon Brown lacked several of them). |
| With a sense of proportion that has been otherwise lacking from her renegade campaign, Leadsom read the runes correctly and saved herself and her party from (at best) two months of hustings at the end of which Theresa May emerged victorious or (at worst) a historic mistake for party and country. As I have said before, it was entirely conceivable that Leadsom would have won. Britain is about to negotiate its exit from the European Union and thus redefine its geopolitical role and commercial position. This is no time for a novice. | With a sense of proportion that has been otherwise lacking from her renegade campaign, Leadsom read the runes correctly and saved herself and her party from (at best) two months of hustings at the end of which Theresa May emerged victorious or (at worst) a historic mistake for party and country. As I have said before, it was entirely conceivable that Leadsom would have won. Britain is about to negotiate its exit from the European Union and thus redefine its geopolitical role and commercial position. This is no time for a novice. |
| Michael Gove, so quickly labelled treacherous for daring to change his mind about Boris Johnson, showed that he is an honourable man by not pressing his case as May’s new opponent in the final ballot. Having finished third in the parliamentary rounds, he could have argued that he was now the de facto silver medallist in that contest, and thus entitled to make his case to the membership as a pro-Brexit contender for the leadership. The Tory constitution is ambiguous enough on this point for the justice secretary at least to have delayed May’s coronation. Instead, he did precisely the opposite. | Michael Gove, so quickly labelled treacherous for daring to change his mind about Boris Johnson, showed that he is an honourable man by not pressing his case as May’s new opponent in the final ballot. Having finished third in the parliamentary rounds, he could have argued that he was now the de facto silver medallist in that contest, and thus entitled to make his case to the membership as a pro-Brexit contender for the leadership. The Tory constitution is ambiguous enough on this point for the justice secretary at least to have delayed May’s coronation. Instead, he did precisely the opposite. |
| And so: almost nine weeks before we expected the Camerons to leave No 10, they will now do so. Britain is about to have a new prime minister, the second woman to occupy that office. The old order changeth, yielding place to new. But how new, precisely? That is one of many questions that the new PM will seek to answer in the days and weeks ahead. | And so: almost nine weeks before we expected the Camerons to leave No 10, they will now do so. Britain is about to have a new prime minister, the second woman to occupy that office. The old order changeth, yielding place to new. But how new, precisely? That is one of many questions that the new PM will seek to answer in the days and weeks ahead. |